OCR Text |
Show lYoung Healthffii Helpful Advice from thevsSjiP? . American Academy of Pediatrics rnnini With AHnlaer-ont Dmraasion and Suicide e Every 90 minutes, an adolescent or young adult kills himself. Last year, 400,000 adolescents ado-lescents attempted to commit suicide 6,000 were successful. success-ful. The adolescent suicide rate has tripled in the last 25 years. e Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults. The families of adolescent suicide victims also are victims vic-tims victims of guilt and sadness at their inability to have prevented a needless death. Parents, friends and physicians often can detect the early warning signs of a potential suicide and refer the troubled youth to the help he or she needs. Adolescents who contemplate contem-plate suicide are usually acutely depressed. Their feelings feel-ings can include hurt, anger, loes, rejection and hopelessness. hopeless-ness. Adults know that depression depres-sion eventually ends. An adolescent ado-lescent may not realize this. If an adolescent is already depressed de-pressed and perhaps thinking of suicide, a normally bearable beara-ble event such as the death of a pet or a breakup with a boyfriend boy-friend or girlfriend can jolt the adolescent to put thought into action. Prior to a suicide attempt, an adolescent may exhibit one or more of the following "warning signs": e Noticeable changes in eating or sleeping habita Unexplained or unusually unusu-ally severe violent or rebellious rebelli-ous behavior e Withdrawal from family fam-ily or friends e Running away Persistent boredom andor difficulty concentrating concentrat-ing Drug andor alcohol abuse Unexplained decline in the quality of school work Unusual neglect of appearance ap-pearance Radical personality change Psychosomatic complaints com-plaints Preoccupation with themes of death e Giving away prized possessions pos-sessions Expressing suicidal thoughts, even jokingly Adolescent suicide is preventable. pre-ventable. Parents and friends can help a depressed adolescent adoles-cent through the following strategies: 1. listen. Dont dismiss the adolescent's problems as trivial. tri-vial. To him, they matter a great deal and are making him unhappy. 2. Be honest If you're worried wor-ried about the person, say so. You will not spark thoughts of suicide by asking about it 3. Shmre your feellngM. Let the adolescent know he's not alone. Everyone can feel sad or depressed at times. 4. Get help. Find a physician, physi-cian, psychologist or qualified professional to handle a potential po-tential suicide problem. Don't wait for it to "go away." Although Al-though simple depression can disappear aa quickly as it. came, it can also escalate to the point that an adolescent thinks of suicide as the only "out." For more information on preventing pre-venting adolescent suicide, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Department De-partment C, P.O. Box 927, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007. "Discretion Is seeing as much as you ought not as much as you can." de Montaigne ;u- : J |